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A Mind for the Poor

A Mind for the PoorJay RichardsWords of LIFE Weekly Devotional

During my senior year in college, I decided to read the Bible straight through quickly rather than in bite-sized chunks. When I did so, a larger pattern jumped out at me: God's abiding concern for the poor, and his expectation that we share his concern. That's the message from Genesis to Revelation.

Near the beginning, God tells the Hebrews before they enter the Promised Land not to "be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor.... Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore commend you, 'Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land'" (Deuteronomy 15:7, 11). The Proverbs are chock full of commands that connect our love of God with how we treat the poor: "Those who oppress the poor insult their Maker / but those who are kind to the needy honor him" (Proverbs 14:29).

Outraged Old Testament prophets like Amos announce God's judgment on Israel for defrauding those who can ill afford it, trampling the needy, and "bringing to ruin the poor of the land" (Amos 8:4-6). No minced words here: God let the Babylonians and Assyrians carry off the Jews into captivity because the Jews worshiped false gods and failed to care for the poor and needy.

It's the same story in the New Testament. God became flesh and was born to a humble woman in a stable filled with animals. Poor shepherds were the first to hear the news and to see God become man. And Luke tells us that at the beginning of Jesus ministry, Jesus entered the synagogue at Nazareth—his hometown—and read from the prophet Isaiah:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,because he has anointed meto bring good news to the poor.He has sent me to proclaim release to the captivesand recovery of sight to the blind,to let the oppressed go free,to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. (Luke 4:18 -- 19)

When Jesus told listeners that he was there to fulfill Isaiah's prophecy, they got so mad that he had to move on to Capernaum.

Jesus’ parable of the sheep and goats is really hard-core, and troubles the placid doctrine of salvation by faith alone. Jesus says that when the Son of Man returns to establish his kingdom, he will separate the "sheep" and "goats" depending on how they have treated people who are hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick, and imprisoned. The goats are dispatched to "eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." The sheep, in contrast, are told to "inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." That sounds much nicer, especially without all the goats. In the parable, the only difference between the sheep and the goats is how they treated the vulnerable, and so, by extension, how they treated Jesus himself: "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are my family, you did it to me" (Matthew 25:31-46).

At one point, a religious figure asks Jesus, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" Jesus says, "’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:34-40).

Another time a lawyer asks Jesus how he can inherit eternal life. Jesus tells them he has to fulfill these two greatest commandments: love God to the full, and love your neighbor as yourself. The lawyer, sensing an unattainable goal, looks for a semantic loophole in the word neighbor. "And who is my neighbor?" he asks. Jesus then tells the story of the Good Samaritan. If you read it carefully, you'll notice that Jesus never answers the lawyer’s question. Instead, after he tells the parable, he asks a different question: "Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” (Luke 10:25-37). His point seems to be that instead of trying to whittle away the definition of neighbor to get off easy, we should strive to be the good neighbor to everyone else. Jesus’ reversal prevents the man from simply taking a safe neighborhood where none of his "neighbors" will ever need help. Even if he lives in a gated community, his neighborhood extends well beyond the gate.

So God's concern for the poor isn't some sidelight. It follows straight from what Jesus tells us are the two greatest commandments. For any follower of Jesus, then, that we should care for and help the poor is not the question. The question is, How do we do it? "Piety," said the Christian philosopher Etienne Gilson, "is no substitute for technique." What he meant is that having the right intentions, being oriented in the right way, doesn't take the place of doing things right. A pilot's caring deeply for his passengers and wanting to land the plane safely are no substitute for his learning how to actually land planes safely. Jesus suggests the same thing. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." Don't forget the third item: love the Lord with all your mind. Don't misunderstand heart. Your heart isn't just your feelings. In the Bible, heart refers to the seat of your will and your emotions. I hope you already have a heart for the poor. Lots of Christians do. But do you have a mind for the poor? Unfortunately, that's in rather short supply.

God knows your heart. Spiritually you're better off a little mixed up about your economics than indifferent to human suffering. Economically, though, only what you do is important, whatever your reason. Buying a bunch of bananas at Costco will have the same economic effect no matter why you buy them.

Our minds and our motives aren't isolated compartments. God gave us minds and reason, so we are responsible for thinking through the consequences of our actions. In fact, it is morally self-indulgent to feel good about our motives when it comes to actions that affect the world. When the focus is personal spiritual growth—sure, we should examine our motives. But when it's time to roll up our sleeves and actually try to help someone, fixating on our motives can become a stumbling block. It can distract us from discovering the right action at the right time. Teenagers rightly ask, "What would Jesus do?"

I'm going to sound like a schoolmarm, but I'll say it anyway: we need to exercise prudence. Prudence means "to see reality as it is, and to act accordingly," to conform your mind, and then your actions, to reality. It's one of the four cardinal virtues, along with justice, fortitude, and temperance. Cardinal is based on the Latin word cardo, which means "hinge." These four virtues are cardinal because all the other virtues hinge on them. Helping the poor, for instance, hinges on prudence. That's because, in the economic realm, actions have all sorts of unintended consequences. We can't anticipate all of them. But we can anticipate a lot of them. Therefore, if we really want to help the poor, we have to exercise prudence—to know what the world is really like, and act accordingly.

Hear more as James and Betty welcome Jay Richards on LIFE Today this Monday and Tuesday. Jay’s book, Money, Greed and God, is available with your gift towards Mission: Water for LIFE.

1 “Woe to the obstinate children,”declares the LORD,“to those who carry out plans that are not mine,forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit,heaping sin upon sin;2 who go down to Egyptwithout consulting me;who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection,to Egypt’s shade for refuge.3 But Pharaoh’s protection will be to your shame,Egypt’s shade will bring you disgrace.4 Though they have officials in Zoanand their envoys have arrived in Hanes,5 everyone will be put to shamebecause of a people useless to them,who bring neither help nor advantage,but only shame and disgrace.”

God's Message to Judah6 A prophecy concerning the animals of the Negev:

Through a land of hardship and distress,of lions and lionesses,of adders and darting snakes,the envoys carry their riches on donkeys’ backs,their treasures on the humps of camels,to that unprofitable nation,7 to Egypt, whose help is utterly useless.Therefore I call herRahab the Do-Nothing.

8 Go now, write it on a tablet for them,inscribe it on a scroll,that for the days to comeit may be an everlasting witness.9 For these are rebellious people, deceitful children,children unwilling to listen to the LORD’s instruction.10 They say to the seers,“See no more visions!”and to the prophets,“Give us no more visions of what is right!Tell us pleasant things,prophesy illusions.11 Leave this way,get off this path,and stop confronting uswith the Holy One of Israel!”

12 Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says:

“Because you have rejected this message,relied on oppressionand depended on deceit,13 this sin will become for youlike a high wall, cracked and bulging,that collapses suddenly, in an instant.14 It will break in pieces like pottery,shattered so mercilesslythat among its pieces not a fragment will be foundfor taking coals from a hearthor scooping water out of a cistern.”

15 This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says:

“In repentance and rest is your salvation,in quietness and trust is your strength,but you would have none of it.16 You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’Therefore you will flee!You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’Therefore your pursuers will be swift!17 A thousand will fleeat the threat of one;at the threat of fiveyou will all flee away,till you are leftlike a flagstaff on a mountaintop,like a banner on a hill.”

18 Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you;therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.For the LORD is a God of justice.Blessed are all who wait for him!

The LORD will HELP his People

19 You People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. 20 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. 21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” 22 Then you will desecrate your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Away with you!”

23 He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows. 24 The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel. 25 In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. 26 The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the LORD binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.

27 See, the Name of the LORD comes from afar,with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke;his lips are full of wrath,and his tongue is a consuming fire.28 His breath is like a rushing torrent,rising up to the neck.He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction;he places in the jaws of the peoplesa bit that leads them astray.29 And you will singas on the night you celebrate a holy festival;your hearts will rejoiceas when people playing pipes go upto the mountain of the LORD,to the Rock of Israel.30 The LORD will cause people to hear his majestic voiceand will make them see his arm coming downwith raging anger and consuming fire,with cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail.31 The voice of the LORD will shatter Assyria;with his rod he will strike them down.32 Every stroke the LORD lays on themwith his punishing clubwill be to the music of timbrels and harps,as he fights them in battle with the blows of his arm.33 Topheth has long been prepared;it has been made ready for the king.Its fire pit has been made deep and wide,with an abundance of fire and wood;the breath of the LORD,like a stream of burning sulfur,sets it ablaze.

Add To Your Faith

The fruit of the Spirit is . . . FAITHFULLNESS.

It is Well With My Soul

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

Jesus, The Great I Am

There is no power in hell or any who can stand before the power and presence of the Great I Am.

THE GOLDEN RULE

The only thing you should owe to anyone is LOVE for one another, for to LOVE the other person is to fulfill the law. Romans 13:8

A Cheerful Heart Is Good Medicine,

but a downcast spirit dries up the bones. Proverbs 17:22

Renewing Your Mind

Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2

Trust & Obey

...."Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones".... Proverbs 3:5-8 NASB

2 Corinthians 5:15

...."and He died for all, so that they who live might NO longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf"

Book of Common Prayer

"From envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness, Good Lord, deliver us."

Trust In The Lord

Rejoice and give thanks in ALL circurmstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Can Prayer Really Change Things?

Our beliefs about the efficacy of prayer are closely related to our faith. If you don't believe that God can change the world, you're unlikely to see it, even if it happens right in front of your eyes. God sometimes shakes up our lives to open our eyes, to increase our trust & faith in him--and help us see prayer's effectiveness...

Prayer Request

Heavenly Father teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart. Psalm 90:12 Would you help by praying for those who leave comments and prayer requests?

Always Follow the 10 Commandments

But we have this TREASURE in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 2 Corinthians 4:7-9

Salvation Lessons From The Thief On The Cross

There were seven truths that the repentant thief understood. Studying these truths is important since they are the same realities that all must embrace in order to gain peace with their Creator...

True, Honest, Just, Pure...

Think on these things.

Perilous Times Shall Come

For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. 2 Timothy 3:1-2